My neighbor married a Ukranian woman and she is coming to USA later this month for first time.  I know she loves to cook and have already been told she will make me a few things.

I would like to give her a wedding gift and thought an American cookbook might be nice and useful.  Any ideas what would be easy enough for her to understand?   Perhaps an american cookbook that also has metric measurements?  Any other ideas if not a cookbook?!?!

Thanks kindly in advance!!

Alicia

I'd get her a gift certificate to Penzey's Spices.

There's one in Arvada.

She can go and look at/smell everything, so no worries about whether or not she knows all the English names.  The spices are better quality than what you can get in the grocery store, and you can buy them in smaller amounts. 

If she loves to cook and is coming to a kitchen that is not her own, this would be a relief to her.

How about Taste of Home??

Or one from a local church or something simular.

She may not know what a lot of our spices/ condiments are.  I know when my brother and his wife traveled abroad, they didn't know what poultry seasoning was in Scottland!  LOL

Maybe you could take her to the store and walk around with her and let her ask questions.

Let her lose in your kitchen to taste your spices.

At Penzey's Spices, you can smell all the spices.

An experienced cook can figure out what to do with them from that.

The spices catalogs and stores available would be great as mentioned above.

I would find an older copy of Joy of Cooking because it has lots of information with a great index! and the book is probably available everywhere. ALso, mark bittman's how to cook everything is another general one that is easy to follow.

America's Test Kitchen cookbooks are good.  I also like my BHG Cookbook--it's in a 3 ring binder form.  I see them at WalMart all the time and there are tons of basic recipes. 

Thanks for all your good ideas! 

Thing is, I would like a cookbook that has both metric and US measurements, since she will be unable to understand our measurements for awhile.

 "America the Beautiful Cookbook". large oversize cookbook. one of The Beautiful Cookbook series. Very nice. gorgeous photos. recipes from all over the US. has both US and metric measurements in it.

"The Joy of Cooking" - considered the Bible of Cooking for the US, though it doesn't have metric measurements. you can always make her a chart converting common measurements and laminate it. I know if I went to Spain, I would want someone to give me "1080 Recipes", their Bible of Cooking. I'm sure every country has one of those.

Also

A Cooking Ingredients Dictionary or something of that sort. I know in Australia and the Netherlands, food and ingredients are called by different names. I would think Ukraine does too. That way she'll know what she needs to buy and what to call it. maybe something with pictures.... I'll try to come up with a title for you. can't think of any right now. that might be more useful than metric measurements since you could buy her measuring spoons and cups.

here's a few. don't think all of these are posted in the system, but you could try Amazon.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/details/9780028610061-The+Visual+Food+Encyclopedia+The+Definitive+Practical+Guide+to+Food+and+Cooking

http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/details/9780671070489-The+Encyclopedia+of+Cooking+A+Complete+AZ+of+Cooking+Terms+Techniques+and+Recipes

http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/details/9781904970187-A+Cooks+Dictionary+International+Food+and+Cooking+Terms+from+A+to+Z

or even some ukraine cookbooks

http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/details/9781844764525-The+Polish+Russian+Classic+Cookbook+70+traditional+dishes+from+Eastern+Europe+shown+stepbystep+in+250+photographs

http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/details/9781566566704-The+Eastern+and+Central+European+Kitchen+Contemporary+Classic+Recipes